Ryancey started with what appears to be a beautiful TO100 portable radio built by French company Optalix in the mid-’70s. The TO100 is a work of art in it’s own right, and any retro tech enthusiast would be happy to get their hands on one. But, Ryancey wasn’t just looking for a pretty radio, he wanted something that could play his favorite Grand Theft Auto radio stations. To make that possible, he turned to everyone’s favorite single-board computer: the Raspberry Pi.

Rockstar, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto video game series, has graciously made the radio soundtracks available to download as MP3s. So, playing them on a Raspberry Pi is as easy as playing any other music. But, Ryancey wanted to simulate the experience of tuning into a real radio station. So, he used two potentiometers — one for volume, and one for tuning — to recreate that experience with some Python code running on the Raspberry Pi. That makes it feel like you’re actually living in San Andreas when you turn on the radio.

Each Friday is PiDay here at Adafruit! Be sure to check out our posts, tutorials and new Raspberry Pi related products. Adafruit has the largest and best selection of Raspberry Pi accessories and all the code & tutorials to get you up and running in no time!

Stop breadboarding and soldering – start making immediately! Adafruit’s Circuit Playground is jam-packed with LEDs, sensors, buttons, alligator clip pads and more. Build projects with Circuit Playground in a few minutes with the drag-and-drop MakeCode programming site, learn computer science using the CS Discoveries class on code.org, jump into CircuitPython to learn Python and hardware together, or even use Arduino IDE. Circuit Playground Express is the newest and best Circuit Playground board, with support for MakeCode, CircuitPython, and Arduino. It has a powerful processor, 10 NeoPixels, mini speaker, InfraRed receive and transmit, two buttons, a switch, 14 alligator clip pads, and lots of sensors: capacitive touch, IR proximity, temperature, light, motion and sound. A whole wide world of electronics and coding is waiting for you, and it fits in the palm of your hand.